“On a regular basis, we are confronted with forms of low intensity violence that do not immediately cause visible damage, but are experienced as violent. Low Intensity violence resembles erosion, a process of destruction that takes place over a long period of time, without a concrete point of beginning or end. In small doses, repeatedly, and in an accumulative pattern, low intensity violence announces its presence in our life. We notice it, experience it, witness it, perpetuate it. Its shape shifting nature escapes us, making it nearly impossible to comprehend in its entirety.

The Third Room is a performance based on reflections and conversations around the notion of low intensity violence. It attempts to address violences that occur on a historical/systemic level, a social/interpersonal level, and on a personal level. These could be characterised by the larger “we”, the communicative “you and I”, and the private “I” forms. Beginning from our own experiences, we trace the movements of low intensity violence across these 3 registers.

Who is writing the book of history? Who is speaking? Who is being spoken to? This shifting of perspectives is integral to our research and work. As three white European artists, we also feel the need to address violence produced within our society, which has been shaped by the fictions of non-violence, freedom, and peaceful coexistence. But how do we do that? What position can we take? Victim? Perpetrator? Witness? All three positions are familiar to us, we each have felt it, done it, seen it.

In The Third Room we speak about the multiple forms and mediums, narratives and events, memories, and instances of low intensity violence. In this multiplicity, the positions of perpetrator, victim and witness are intertwined and held in dialogue attempting to capture a fraction of the complex and subtle social patterns of violence.”

Christine De Smedt (BE), Theo Livesey (UK/BE) en Liza Baliasnaja (LT/BE)

Christine De Smedt (°1963) werkt binnen het gebied van choreografie, dans en performance. Steeds vertrekkend vanuit een onderzoeksproces, ontwikkelt ze methodologieën voor verschillende performatieve formats. Ze werkte onder meer samen met Meg Stuart, Mårten Spångberg, Mette Edvardsen, Xavier Le Roy, Mette Ingvartsen, Eszter Salamon, Bojana Cvejic, Myriam Van Imschoot. Ze begeleidt artistieke projecten en residenties in de Research and Training Studio in Performing Arts in Brussel.

Theo Livesey (°1995), is een performer en maker in dans, theater en het ‘geschreven woord’. Theo studeerde af in P.A.R.T.S. in 2016 en werkt sindsdien samen met Gisèle Vienne als performer. Hij ontwikkelde eigen werk ‘op het podium en op papier’, en engageerde zich in verschillende samenwerkingsprocessen.

Liza Baliasnaja (°1994) is choreografe en danseres. Ze studeerde dans in P.A.R.T.S. en rondt momenteel haar diploma filosofie af aan de KU Leuven. In de afgelopen jaren hield Liza zich bezig met dans door middel van performance, onderzoek, pedagogiek en creatieve samenwerking.